SINGAPORE – Another senior church member embroiled in the City Harvest Church case has had his application to travel overseas granted.

Investment manager Chew Eng Han told reporters yesterday that his application had been granted. His bail has been doubled to S$1 million.

Chew would not say where he was going or for how long, except that it would be for multiple trips. Outside court yesterday, he told reporters that “life goes on for me and I’ve every reason to be upbeat”.

Last month, church founder Kong Hee was also granted permission to travel.

Chew is one of six members of the church to face charges in what is believed to be the largest financial scandal to hit Singapore’s charity sector to date.

Some S$24 million was allegedly transferred from the church’s building fund account to two companies as bond investments.

These were alleged to be “sham transactions” meant to mask the diversion of the church’s building fund to finance the music career of Ho Yeow Sun, wife of Kong Hee. A further sum of S$26.6 million was allegedly used to create the impression that the sham bonds had been fully “redeemed”, a process called “round-tripping”.

Their lawyers, who were in court yesterday for a pre-trial conference, will be back in court on Oct 4. Kimberly Spykerman